This invention relates generally to board loading apparatus. More particularly, the invention concerns high-speed apparatus including a driven feed conveyor; an inclined pick off conveyor having projecting, board supporting lugs; a receiving conveyor for receiving each board; and an arrestor, including a stop arm, synchronized with the movement of the pick off conveyor alternately to hold back the sheet of boards on the feed conveyor and to permit one board at a time to be picked off. The apparatus provides accurate, reliable, high-speed board separation for individual board handling downstream.
Board handling equipment, which may include trimmers, planars, sorters and the like, require individual board separation from a planar sheet of transversely oriented, edge-abutted boards. Board separating, or loading, apparatus often limit the throughput of board handling systems due to the relative difficulty of accurately and reliably picking an individual board from a sheet of boards The problems associated with picking off an individual board include the undesirable displacement of the remaining boards of the sheet, and loss of control of the board picked off. These problems are exacerbated by operation of the board loading apparatus (heretofore limited to approximately one hundred boards/minute (bpm)) at the higher speeds of which other board handling equipment are capable.
It is desired to provide a significant increase in the rate at which board loading apparatus separates individual boards from a sheet of edge-abutted boards. It is important to provide such rate improvement without adversely impacting the accuracy or reliability of the board loading process. Finally, such improvement should be embodied in apparatus that is compatible with, thereby to significantly improve the throughput of, existing board handling systems.